


The Trans Superheroes of Gotham Club

by lunarpaddle



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics)
Genre: Bat Family, Gen, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-27 00:33:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18293261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle
Summary: “I mean, the costume was all purple, and I stitched some cheap chicken fillets in, and nobody questioned the cheap voice modulator because that’s pretty par for the course in our business, right? And nobody even found out till I told Tim, and he got your dad to help me out, which wasn’t hard because he’d already set Tim up with hormones and everything -” Damian’s eyes widened further - “and I’m babbling a lot here, but basically what I’m trying to say is you should really fucking let me take you back to the cave, and if you don’t want too many people to know I’m sure me and Tim could manage to patch you up pretty decently between us, and I’d really really prefer you didn’t bleed out on the floor right now.”





	The Trans Superheroes of Gotham Club

Steph and Damian had never exactly gotten along. When he’d first taken up the cape she was a cautionary tale, and not long after she’d arrived back in Gotham his dad was dead, and he didn’t really get along with anyone after that, besides Dick. She saw him around, but she was yet to get the chance she’d had with Barbara, to prove she wasn’t the same girl who fucked up so bad she started a city-wide gang war.

(The kid was painfully obnoxious, too, but so was she at his age.)

He was still family though, and when Oracle set all the active bats in Gotham to searching for him she didn’t hesitate before starting on her sector. Apparently he’d been injured pretty severely on patrol, and had disappeared into the night before Dick could finish taking out the thugs responsible.

“Typical bat-brat,” she muttered, dropping down on the roof of an abandoned house a little west of where Damian was injured. It wasn’t a safehouse, but it’d been abandoned as long as she could remember, and she’d definitely used it at least once to patch up in a hurry. The floorboards creaked as she slipped in through one of the upper windows, litter and cigarette butts scattered across them from the last time some kids decided this was a good spot for a drink. 

And there was Damian, legs drawn up to his chest and back against the rotting walls, glaring at her in that way all Bruce’s kids seemed to have down pat.

“Uh,” she gave him an awkward wave “Hey, Dami.”

He continued to glare for a few seconds before speaking, voice ragged.

“I am perfectly capable of looking after myself, Batgirl. I will treat my wounds myself, and return to the cave shortly.” There was a tremor in his voice that seemed distinctly out of place, a note of fear amongst his usual brashness. One she’d never heard before, despite having seen him get injured pretty severely multiple times before.

Fuck. This wasn’t good.

“Or, you could let me take a look at it,” she said, “and if it’s too bad for either of us to patch up, we can take you down to Leslie’s. Even the big guys need a doctor sometimes, Dami.”

“No.” The word escaped his mouth in what she thought might have been a scream if it weren’t for how fucking faint this kid looked, probably from blood loss. God-damn bat-brats.

“I mean, it’s that or I hit Babs up on comms and she gets all your brothers down here, and we both know they won’t give you a choice at all.” She stepped forwards, but suddenly the kid had a sharpened batarang in one hand, and fuck, from here she could see the blood slowly pouring out from the hole in his torso just below his ribs. He had the top half of his suit off, but the blood was still soaking through - 

Oh.

She got down on her knees.

 

“You know, I’ve always felt a bit guilty about why I started doing this whole, vigilante thing.” He stared at her, batarang still brandished. “Everyone else had all these noble reasons for wanting to help, and I mean, I wanted to stop my dad and all that. But I was more excited about it than I liked to admit - I got to dress up and pretend to be someone else every night, and whilst I was in the costume, nobody mistook me for a boy.”

That got through to him - his already weak breathing hitched, and the hand holding the batarang wavered.

“I mean, the costume was all purple, and I stitched some cheap chicken fillets in, and nobody questioned the cheap voice modulator because that’s pretty par for the course in our business, right? And nobody even found out till I told Tim, and he got your dad to help me out, which wasn’t hard because he’d already set Tim up with hormones and everything -” Damian’s eyes widened further - “and I’m babbling a lot here, but basically what I’m trying to say is you should really fucking let me take you back to the cave, and if you don’t want too many people to know I’m sure me and Tim could manage to patch you up pretty decently between us, and I’d really really prefer you didn’t bleed out on the floor right now.”

The kid stared for a few seconds longer, trembling in the dim light from the streetlights outside.

He gave a weak nod.

\---

“Jesus, he nearly bled out just because he was scared of coming out?” She and Tim sat down across the room from an unconscious but stable Damian, waiting for the others to get back to base. “I always forget how fucked up things can be for some trans kids.”

“Tim, both our parents kicked us out on the streets for being trans.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s just easy to forget when you’ve been at it for so long. God, I swear I forget I’m trans at all sometimes.”

She didn’t think she was quite there yet, but she knew what he meant. Some kids at school were still fucking asses about it, but more than not had grown out of it - a fair few had come out themselves, as gay or trans or any number of other things. And outside of school, she was mostly around Barbara, who was an absolute blessing, the Bat-kids, who she was fairly sure would beat the hell out of anyone who tried to mess with her for being trans, and the criminals she dealt with, who were a bit too busy being terrified of the whole “Bat-” part of things to worry too much about the “-girl” part.

“Yeah. It gets better, huh.” She certainly never thought she’d be here when she was fumbling around with what the hell a gender was age 13.

“Sure does,” Tim smirked, “I’m pretty sure Dick knows, actually - Bruce definitely did, he asked me for help buying the kid binders, and it would’ve been in the files he left Dick.” 

She sighed. “Probably. Just like Bruce not to make sure Dami knew we’d all be chill with it.”

“And just like Dick to assume Bruce had the whole thing handled.” They exchanged a grin. She was glad Tim and her were still friends - the whole dating thing was awkward, but the whole “dying” thing had more or less cleared things up, and she appreciated not being the only member of the Trans Superheroes Of Gotham club. 

Guess they’d be adding another member to that now.

“I’m gonna go get a shower and some sleep - come get me if I’m needed, yeah?”

Tim rolled his eyes. “Fine, leave me with the demon brat. Night, Steph.”

The bats were a nightmare, Steph thought as she walked up the stairs to her room at the manor - but it was good having family.


End file.
